A fair amount of startups lately have been branding their companies using multiple fault domains. I wanted to share a simple rule I use to help everyone brand their startup better.

I call it the "Single Fault Domain Rule" or "TheFacebook.com" rule.

A perfect domain would be Facebook.com. (Drop the "The"...) A single fault domain would be TheFacebook.com. A multiple fault domain would be TheFacebook.io or worse...The-Facebook.ai

TheFacebook.com isn't perfect, but is ok to get started since it only has one fault. TheFacebook.io has two faults. "The" & .io. This is a multiple fault domain and is non-ideal and really not necessary.

If you are going to use a non-dot-com domain (.io, ai, etc) it should be a perfect spelling of the word or phrase. There are too many great domains available to do this.

It is better to make up a short word ala Google.com, Twitter.com, Trulia.com, etc. or combine two words ala OpenDoor.com, RedPhoenix.com than to use a multiple fault domain.

I realize many people believe all the good domains are taken. I can assure you they are not. Many great domains expire everyday and there are plenty of brandable domains still available.

I also built https://marquix.com to help everyone discover a new brand for your startup. Feel free to play with it and give me feedback. It's just a side project I built for myself several years ago that I use nearly everyday.